Here the thing though. If tons are criminals are hiding freely in Hong Kong, it isn’t Hong Kong’s legal system that is the problem. It is the fact there are lot of corruption happening in China. The extradition will not change anything. There will still be criminals in China that escape justice by running to Taiwan or Singapore. The source of the problem is China itself. Hong Kong has no reason to weaken its legal system just because some people in China thinks it’s justified to catch a few criminals.
And the whole bill was so stupid to begin with. You never screw with people’s livelihood. People, no matter your political position, will emotionally react to things that threaten their existence. Any bill that would extradict a citizen to China without proper due process (In China, due process is what the party says. The legal system is below the party. They made that clear) is one of them. The fact that the CE couldn’t foresee this boggles my mind. What did you think was going to happen?
It makes me think she was hired to be obedient rather than hired for talent. Her handling of this situation further enforces that view. The whole thing is a shit show. Now, she is stuck between a wall and a rock of her own doing. I also agree that Beijing didn’t allow her to quit. She made this mess, she should stay for the outcome. Either clean up the mess or go down as the CE that ruined Hong Kong.
Also, it’s already been pointed by Taiwan that there are other legal ways to hand over criminals, it’s just that the current government wanted this bill. Similar to how the FBI tried to peer pressure Apple to decrypt a criminals phone even though they already paid an Israeli company to do so.
That is very much is the case. Western media gives a lot of time, space, and prominence to the fears that China could extradict anyone they wanted for any crime they wanted in HK. Meanwhile, it's not that hard to figure that the amendment only allows 37 out of the existing 46 offences listed in Schedule 1 the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance; upping the minimum sentences to 7 years before the extradition is considered; retaining the clauses for double criminality, no political extradition (which is determined by HK, first by the CE, then could be challenged by the courts), etc etc...
I compared the proposed amendment (the earlier one that had a minimum 3 year sentence) against the existing FOO, and the amendment isn't that drastic as a change.
What would be concerning is still some of the existence of white-collar offences that applies, and removing the requirement for the CE to first notify the LegCo and require their approval. The latter, as I understood it, does not happen in other countries, and interesting in HK politics because the pro-democratic camp has most of its sway in LegCo.
What this CE had bungled badly was the lack of consultation and attempted to ram this whole thing through, believing that she had enough votes to do so anyways.
I mean the same happens here too basically. Most people barely care and just go with whatever they overhear in the news. Western media is pretty biased too in this regard. Chinese media only shows protesters throwing rocks at police, we primarily get to see protesters injured by police.
Then we have quite a bunch of people thinking the extradition law was literally saying that Hong Kong would have to surrender any dissident at China's request.
While fears of this law muddying the waters are justified, I think it is purposely misrepresented in Western media. As of now, Hong Kong has no treaty at all with China, Macau and Taiwan. A lot of criminals, from murderers to real estate billionaires that cheated others for millions are walking free in Hong Kong while wanted in China or Taiwan. And even then it's not like China or Taiwan could just request anyone to be surrendered to them. Each case would still have to go through the Hong Kong legal system, meaning the crime must also be considered a crime in Hong Kong. For more details the Wikipedia article on this law is a good starting point, there's also a link to the full version of the law.